Overview

As part of your first-year experience in the CUSP Discovery Core (DC) sequence, CUSP asks you to create a Discovery Core ePortfolio that tells a story about your journey through your first year at the University of Washington Bothell. Reflect on how the 'artifacts' of your first-year work (essays, reports, projects, presentations, performances, art work, etc.) helped you achieve the CUSP Learning Goals.

Below are resources that explain essential steps in the DC Portfolio creation, sharing and submission processes.

First Year Reflection Essay - Description and Prompts

In your First Year Reflection essay, you will reflect on your experiences as a first year student at UW Bothell by writing a 1000-1500 word evidence-based narrative essay in which you respond to one or more of the following prompts and provide specific and persuasive evidence to support your narrative. The evidence you use to support your narrative must consist of “artifacts” from your courses (papers, peer reviews, presentations, lab reports, graphs or spreadsheets, artwork, webpages, etc.) and other academic and professional experiences (clubs, community service, etc.). Each of these artifacts will be housed on an artifact page in your portfolio (see the portfolio template). As you talk about each artifact, you should hyperlink the title of the artifact to the actual artifact page. Remember, always be specific and both “show” your evidence and “tell” about your evidence to make your narrative convincing.

When you discuss your artifacts, please briefly identify and describe the CUSP courses, assignments, and activities related to that artifact to provide context (the artifacts you use can be from any class you have taken in CUSP).

Prompts for reflective writing:

How do your first-year experiences and artifacts specifically relate to the CUSP Learning Goals?

How do your first-year experiences and artifacts specifically relate to your goals for UW Bothell and your career path?

Of the things you've learned during your first year, which two or three things do you most want to carry forward with you into your next year, and how do these specifically relate to your artifacts?

What knowledge, skills and strengths are you developing in extracurricular and community experiences and how can you connect these specifically to your artifacts and to what happens in the classroom?

In what ways have academic services or resources enriched your first year at UW Bothell (The Writing Center, QSC, The Campus Library, IT, Digital Media Lab, Career Services, etc.)? and how did these resources specifically influence your artifacts?

Example Portfolios

Portfolio Privacy

Privacy Notice: You can control the access to your Google Site at all times. During the time when you are designing your portfolio, you probably want to share it only with your DC III instructor (you actually make your instructor an "owner" of the site) and peers who will give you feedback. Once you feel that your site is ready for "primetime" at the end of your DC III, you can change the share settings to UW-only (which will allow everyone with a UW Net ID to view your site) or open it up to the public Web (everyone in the whole world can see it). Click here for information on how to control the access to your Google Site.